A statue of George Washington stands in a gallery at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown Thursday, March 16, 2017. The museum which replaced the Yorktown Victory Center will begin it's Grand Opening Celebration of the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown March 23rd thru April 4th.

Former employee sues Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation for discrimination

A statue of George Washington stands in a gallery at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown Thursday, March 16, 2017. The museum which replaced the Yorktown Victory Center will begin it's Grand Opening Celebration of the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown March 23rd thru April 4th.

A former employee has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, alleging discrimination and a hostile work environment.

Laura Hill sued the foundation alleging racial, religious and age discrimination, as well as retaliation. She seeks at least $12 million in damages, according to the lawsuit.

Hill, who is black, was terminated after she requested a meeting to discuss the reduction of her responsibilities, wages and work hours on Oct. 23. Hill had been employed in the on-site education department at Jamestown Settlement, according to a press release from the office of her lawyer David Branch, which announced the lawsuit late Friday afternoon.

From 2013 to 2018, Hill was the only black interpretive staff member in a more than 80-person department. The lawsuit charges that she was a target of racial bias and retaliation by interpretive site supervisors.

Since 2013, Hill had applied for more than a dozen full-time interpreter positions, the release states.

“Each time the positions were filled by Caucasians, who were often substantially younger than me and had less education and/or work experience,” Hill said in the release.

The lawsuit charges that black candidates with better credentials are consistently passed over when job openings are available in favor of white candidates.

Hill believes she was falsely accused of policy violations and the recipient of unwarranted disciplinary actions in more than half a dozen instances between 2017 and 2018.

A Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation official declined to comment on the lawsuit.

“It’s a personnel matter and we do not discuss such matters,” a woman who identified herself as the foundation’s manager of human resources said Nov. 2.

The human resources manager hung up when asked to identify herself by name.

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